Now where were we? Oh yeah - the important thing was I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. They didnÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢t have white onions because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones...

Last night, I began to read Rene Francois Guettee's "The Papacy". He was a 19th century Roman Catholic priest, (for those who haven't heard of him). I actually saw the book recommended here on the forum....Has anyone read it, would love to hear your input. Mind you, I'm only on the first 10 pages.

"as [you've] informed us that respect chills love, it is natural to conclude that all your pretty flights arise from your pampered sensibility; and that, vain of this fancied preeminence of organs, you foster every emotion till the fumes, mounting to your brain, dispel the sober suggestions of reason. It is not in this view surprising that when you should argue you become impassioned, and that reflection inflames your imagination instead of enlightening your understanding." - Mary Wollstonecraft

The Little World of Don Camillo by Giovanni Guareschi about a Catholic Priest and a Communist Mayor in small town Italy.

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Violence is a lie, for it goes against the truth of our faith, the truth of our humanity. Violence destroys what it claims to defend: the dignity, the life, the freedom of human beings. Violence is a crime against humanity, for it destroys the very fabric of society.

1) Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, New Testament, Volume II, The Gospel of Mark (I’ve been on this book for about 5 thousand years, it should take me another 2 thousand before my lazy rear completes it).2) Fr. V.C. Samuel, Chalcedon Re-examined (been on this one for approximately 7.5 thousand years, and it may take me just that much more to finish it — again, pure laziness)3) Croft, Essential Criminal Law (May I get through it alive Christ-willing; Kyrie Eleison)

Peace.

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No longer an active member of this forum. Sincerest apologies to anyone who has taken offence to anything posted in youthful ignorance or negligence prior to my leaving this forum - October, 2012.

"Philosophy is the imitation by a man of what is better, according to what is possible" - St Severus

Ebor (who is reading "Murder in Millenium VI", Margery Kemp/Calvin/Bunyan for a Survey of British Lit course, "Japanese Festivals" "The Hamster History of Britain" (a sort of picture book that adults can enjoy too) and several other books depending on where I am. )

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"I wish they would remember that the charge to Peter was "Feed my sheep", not "Try experiments on my rats", or even "Teach my performing dogs new tricks". - C. S. Lewis

Just completed: Tsar - The Lost World of Nicholas and Alexandra by Peter Kurth. It certainly presented the Romanovs in a very unflattering light but that was not surprising to me having read many books on the subject. This one was very well researched and beautifully illustrated with archival photographs.

Currently: Mother Angelica by Raymond Arroyo. I've only started but it promises to be a great read. She single-handedly built the largest religious media/broadcasting center in the world and did it in spite of tremendous opposition from cardinals, bishops and dishonest businessmen.

Today I started reading Christ the Eternal Tao which thus far is very interesting. It is a good example of how Orthodoxy doesn't seek to destroy a culture, but to grow from what is good within a culture. And of course I probably should have read this awhile ago considering my avatar here!

Today I started reading Christ the Eternal Tao which thus far is very interesting. It is a good example of how Orthodoxy doesn't seek to destroy a culture, but to grow from what is good within a culture. And of course I probably should have read this awhile ago considering my avatar here!

I'd read it if there was a Reader's Digest condensed version. I've heard it is overly verbose, but nonetheless an excellent book.

I'd read it if there was a Reader's Digest condensed version. I've heard it is overly verbose, but nonetheless an excellent book.

It has been especially interesting to me as I have been working on learning some Chinese for awhile now (yeah I know I have wierd hobbies). The problem of being overly verbose seems to be part of almost every book published by Saint Herman's. I love their books but some of them (especially the later Optina Elders) are packed with relatively useless information (But that is partly because they are translations of Russian works, and as even a quick glance at Russian literature shows they like to overdo everything). I think the book is wonderful though in showing how true missionary work ought to be carried out. That Orthodoxy need not impose a foriegn culture upon mission subjects and can built upon the high points of any culture. Such ideals would be very important if the Orthodox were to conduct any serious missionary work among the Navajos, for instance (but that's the topic for another thread).

One thing I especially like in the book are the Chinese icons depicting events from the life of Christ. Christ and the apostles are all depicted as Chinese and the artwork is in a definite Chinese style (I'm not nearly as conservative as some people think I am!). The book is quite excelent because it forces one to see Christianity outside of a European context and with a completely different philosophical base - and hence indirectly highlights the danger of tieing Orthodoxy too deeply to any one culture.

That title is rather disturbing... and I doubt any publisher is so naive as to miss the double meaning.

It's an interesting read, but it is tainted too much by the author's reliance on guilt by association and his secularist axe he is grinding. Still it makes some good points I think about the media's coverage of Mother Theresa.

Yeah the title has kept it out of many libraries. The author wanted to title it "Sacred Cow", but his editors overuled him. He also produced a documentary on the same subject titled "Hell's Angel", which has aired in the UK but not in the US.

That is too bad the author has to be so polemical. His message would be much more widely recieved if he could tone it down a bit. But I must confess I did laugh the first time I saw that title... you never know what strange titles you'll find at a used book store.

"as [you've] informed us that respect chills love, it is natural to conclude that all your pretty flights arise from your pampered sensibility; and that, vain of this fancied preeminence of organs, you foster every emotion till the fumes, mounting to your brain, dispel the sober suggestions of reason. It is not in this view surprising that when you should argue you become impassioned, and that reflection inflames your imagination instead of enlightening your understanding." - Mary Wollstonecraft

I just finished a Star Trek Deep Space Nine novel and am beginning (again) a book called Not of This World (about Fr. Seraphim Rose) I had started to read it before I had our baby girl but then things got 'crazy' and I forgot about reading it for a while. I've decided to start reading it again, from the beginning since I can't remember where I left off last. I am also in the middle of a collection of Sherlock Holmes stories. These are both pretty good books.

Mary

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Mary Cecilia passed into eternal life on Jan 2, 2010. May her memory be eternal!

Intelligent Design Creationism and Its Critics: Philosophical, Theological, and Scientific Perspectives, ed. by Robert T Pennock. The first essay in this book is the worst work I have ever read. On any subject. It was written by someone with a PhD in philosophy, and it makes you realise exactly how bankrupt the Darwinian philosophy is.

EDIT--Let me rephrase the last sentence. I had spent nearly 40 minutes writing a mini-critique of this book, which I was going to post as a seperate thread, but then I noticed that I was going to be late for work, and I got tired of the whole thing, so I just erased it and posted a comment quickly on this thread. The last sentence would have been better though had I said: It was written by someone with a PhD in philosophy, and it makes you realise who intellectually bankrupt even the most educated among the Darwinist camp can be at times. Certainly most Darwinists are far better educated and intelligent than me, I didn't mean to imply that they were all idiots and I was the smart one. I was just frustrated that such a biased, contradictory, nonsensical piece could not only get published, but would be the very first essay and would set the tone for the entire book.

« Last Edit: October 08, 2005, 11:15:02 PM by Asteriktos »

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"as [you've] informed us that respect chills love, it is natural to conclude that all your pretty flights arise from your pampered sensibility; and that, vain of this fancied preeminence of organs, you foster every emotion till the fumes, mounting to your brain, dispel the sober suggestions of reason. It is not in this view surprising that when you should argue you become impassioned, and that reflection inflames your imagination instead of enlightening your understanding." - Mary Wollstonecraft

I`m just goin to start "The difference of the nature philosophy of Demoktiros and Epikuros" by Karl Marx - a work, that made him the doctor in philosophy.The book is just published in the Finnish language: Demokriitoksen ja Epikuroksen luonnonfilosofian ero. Better late than never...

I just got a Harry Turtledove alternate history from the library: "Ruled Britannia" The premise is "What if the Spanish Armada had succeeded?" It has Elizabeth I a prisoner in the tower for 10 years, Phillip of Spain's daughter Isabella ruling England with her husband Albert of Austria, and William Shakespeare as the main character.

Turtledove does excellent alternate history.

Ebor

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"I wish they would remember that the charge to Peter was "Feed my sheep", not "Try experiments on my rats", or even "Teach my performing dogs new tricks". - C. S. Lewis

I'm working on "Counsels from the Holy Mountain" by Elder Ephraim...its like reading the Bible...its so huge. However, its good in that it is a series of letters from E. Ephraim to his (anonyumous) spiritual children (published with consent I'm sure) and so its divided into sections relating to subject such as prayer, ilnesses, passions...etc. It can be a hard read and theres an "orthodox dictionary of terms" such as "isichia=quietude, panagia= all holy, gr. term used to venerate the Theotokos....etc.

Its good...but takes forever to finish unless u got loads of time on your hands or are reading it for school.

Counsels from the Holy Mountain is good. ÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒâ€š I enjoyed that along with Monastic Wisdon which is a collection of Elder Joseph's letters. ÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒâ€š Elder Joseph of Vatopaidi also has some similar books that very good but I think only one is out in English. ÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒâ€š

Right now I'm readying Way to Nicaea by Fr. John Behr which is very good. ÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒâ€š It is taking forever though since I am also reading primary sources to go along with it. ÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒâ€š But the end result will be good as his book gives the reader a solid patristic grounding. ÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒâ€š His approach that patristics is mainly about the question "Who do you say I am?" makes the reader think a little outside the box. ÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒâ€š

Am re-reading Christ the Eternal Tao - I just love this book. ÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒâ€š Pages 200-300 give the best short expanation of Christianity that I have ever read. ÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒâ€š It is written towards either the secularist or non Christian - but really helped me, a struggling Orthodox Christian to better understand my own faith. ÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒâ€š Too much matieral put out by Orthodoxy is aimed at winning converts from the RCC or Protestantism over technicalities - this rises far above that. ÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒâ€š

Also just finished The Science of God which an athiest slowly turning theist neighbor of mine read and wanted me to read so we could discuss it. ÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒâ€š I think the whole premise of the book was off and had some very arbitrary arguments based on science - so in 30 years most of the science he uses to justify his view will have changed. ÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒâ€š Also it simply has no deep theological understanding of Genesis, at all. ÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒâ€š While Creationism is important to Genesis it is only part. ÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒâ€š The deeper part of man falling and needing a saviour - plus the revelation of the Trinity even in the early chapters of Genesis aren't mentioned. ÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒâ€š Still if it helped a struggling atheist/agnostic get a little firmer faith in theism then it isn't all bad. ÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒâ€š ÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒâ€š

Oh, this translation in by Michael R. Katz, put out by Oxford University Press. Translations of Dostoevsky always seem to be...problematic. I think there's a great deal of irony, and even humour that is lost. I'd love an opinion from someome who has read Dostoevsky in the origional Russian.

finally embarking on a long-overdue rereading of the Lord of the Rings

and, Inkspell by Cornelia Funke, a German young adult writer along the fantasy vein - this is the sequal to the book Inkheart...both are wonderful, I recommend them for anyone w/ similar reading tastes to mine (I lean towards fantasy and/or children's-young adult literature as my reading of choice).

Ebor - although I loved my English major days which ended fairly recently, I don't envy you your Marlowe and Donne, because I was never left w/ any time to read my kiddie fantasy books - now that's all I do. Blessed freedom from school! someday I'm sure I'll hear my brick-sized Norton Anthologies of Literature calling to me to read the canonical stuff again, and they are on my book shelf waiting for just such a time, but for now I doubt it'll happen any time soon

Norton Anthologies as "brick sized"? Not "cinder block"? An advantage to them is that they have such a selection of great works all in one volume for easy of reading again.

This course is a bit of a "easy one" for me I suppose as I've read a good number of the things we're studying years ago; it isn't all new to me. I've actually read "Faustus" aloud in a group that met to read plays and was Mephistophiles. We got into the ending in a big way and the guy reading Faustus got dragged off a short way. (When we were working our way through Shakespeare we voted to NOT do "Titus Andronicus".) and I've seen the movie that Richard Burton made. Then again, I'm only taking one course to start out, so I am able to have other reading too.

Ebor

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"I wish they would remember that the charge to Peter was "Feed my sheep", not "Try experiments on my rats", or even "Teach my performing dogs new tricks". - C. S. Lewis

For something *completely* different, we just read the children a couple portions of "The Cyberiad" by Stanislaw Lem: "Trurl's Electronic Bard" the section about the Steelypips and most of the early part where an incredibly stupid and stubbon computer is built. Part of the gift is Lem's and part is the genius of the translator from Polish to English, Michael Kandel. In the "Bard" one of the poems that the machine composes a poem about a haircut with all the words beginning with "S". it's about Samson.

Ebor

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"I wish they would remember that the charge to Peter was "Feed my sheep", not "Try experiments on my rats", or even "Teach my performing dogs new tricks". - C. S. Lewis

Oroonoko....that's the one that is structured largely like a romance right? between an African princess and prince, iirc? i read it 2 summers ago i think...there was something troubling about the ending though, i cant clearly recall what. sparked lots of discussion in class. let me know your thoughts on it when you finish?

right now for me: yet another reread of the HP series (on Chamber of Secrets currently), planning to have Goblet of Fire read by Nov. 18 in time for the movie (but will still reread Order of the Pheonix and HBP to get all that detail better instilled in my memory bank for future reference)...and still plugging my way through LOTR - and enjoying it more than i think i did last time i read it, which is always a treat. it helps that i havent seen the films in a while - they are brilliant, but there are some details that dont match with the descriptions of Tolkien as i interpret them, the most important being the whole physique of Frodo (age and build)...so it's nice to reread w/ the films not as strong in my mind as they have been in the past.

I'm set to start reading Radical Monotheism and Western Culture (With Supplementary Essays), by H. Richard Niebuhr. I very much enjoyed it the first time I read it, but that was over 5 years ago, and a lot has happend during that time.

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"as [you've] informed us that respect chills love, it is natural to conclude that all your pretty flights arise from your pampered sensibility; and that, vain of this fancied preeminence of organs, you foster every emotion till the fumes, mounting to your brain, dispel the sober suggestions of reason. It is not in this view surprising that when you should argue you become impassioned, and that reflection inflames your imagination instead of enlightening your understanding." - Mary Wollstonecraft

Oroonoko....that's the one that is structured largely like a romance right? between an African princess and prince, iirc? i read it 2 summers ago i think...there was something troubling about the ending though, i cant clearly recall what. sparked lots of discussion in class. let me know your thoughts on it when you finish?

My apologies for not getting back here in a while. Yes, "Oroonoko" by Aphra Behn is part romance, part social commentary on both slavery and life in what is now called Suriname, part travelogue. It all ends in tragedy: Imoinda and Oroonoko try to run away so their child is not born into slavery, but in the end Oroonoko kills her, is recaptured, and tortured/dismembered until he dies. It lead to some lively discussion in my class as well about slavery, the fact that Oroonoko took others as slaves and sold them when he was a prince, "Is Behn decrying slavery?" and more.

Ebor

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"I wish they would remember that the charge to Peter was "Feed my sheep", not "Try experiments on my rats", or even "Teach my performing dogs new tricks". - C. S. Lewis

For research reading, currently eating up "On the Beaten Path, an Appalachian Pilgrimage," by Robert Rubin, and any other books I can find on the Appalachian Trail (planning to hike at least part of it come May). For entertainment purposes, reading "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman.For spiritual enrichment "The Orthodox Church," Timothy Ware.

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Now where were we? Oh yeah - the important thing was I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. They didnÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢t have white onions because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones...